Tiffany Peters, a former court clerk who was pardoned by President David Granger last year after she was convicted for stealing $3.2 million from the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts Registry, was yesterday faced with a new charge alleging that she also stole $1.1 million from the registry.
The courtroom of Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in Georgetown heard that between January 16, 2012 and August 7, 2012, Peters, 26, of Lot 35 Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara, being employed as a clerk or servant at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, stole $1,127,000 from the Registrar of the court.
Peters’ attorney, Latchmie Rahamat, told the court that she will be objecting to the charge that has been laid against her client since she was charged and convicted for the same offence with the same set of circumstances and facts. Rahamat argued that the new charge against her client is a blatant abuse of power by the police, and asked that the charge be struck out by the court.
Rahamat told the court that while Peters was doing time in prison and was preparing to file an appeal in the matter, she was pardoned by the president in 2016 and was later released. The lawyer said that after the release of her client, she was a beneficiary of the SKYE Programme, through which she learnt a trade.
Rahamat explained that the new charge came when Peters was applying for a police clearance and was contacted by the fraud squad. The lawyer appealed for her client to be set bail at less than $50,000 or granted her release on self-bail since she does not deserve to go through the same trial again. Police prosecutor Neville Jeffers had no objections to bail.
Chief Magistrate McLennan granted Peters self-bail. The matter was adjourned until January 24 for the defence to lay over submissions.
Peters, in November, 2013, was arraigned for stealing $3,045,000 from the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts between February 7 and September 11, 2012. At the conclusion of her trial in October, 2014, she was found guilty by Magistrate Judy Latchman and was sentenced to 60 months in jail.
